Adolph Hitler's Biggest Mistake

[JSojourner]

Hitler's racial hatred could also make the list as his insane policies robbed the Third Reich of hundreds of thousands of potential soldiers and other supporters.  Many of whom were brilliant. But I just listed the big three. 

[JSojourner]

Great insights from everyone.

I think of how many soldiers were tied up guarding prison camps, concentration camps or working for the various secret police agencies that could have been at the front.  (Or doing other important war work.)  It's not that a totalitarian dictator didn't need some sort of Gestapo, but the Nazis were SO distracted by their hate. 

And then there were the Jews and slavs of Germany and Eastern Europe who -- as a previous poster said -- might have been inclined to support Hitler against Stalin (another brutish mass murderer).

Dunkirk?  Very interesting insight and one I had forgotten about.  The Bohemian Corporal certainly did make some idiotic tactical errors.  Falling for the old Pas de Calais deception and then -- even after the Allies land in Normandy -- refusing to release his Panzers?  That was pretty idiotic.

I don't imagine ANY invasion of the USSR could ever have been successful.  I'm not sure anyone could conquer Russia, ever.  Even if the Soviets were driven beyond the Urals, I can't imagine Uncle Joe suing for peace.  But you guys make a great point -- the ethnic populations of the Western USSR might have cheerfully jumped on the German bandwagon if they had been treated decently and promised some form of autonomy.

I still think failing to follow through with Operation Sea Lion was dumb.  Could the Germans have conquered Britain? I have no idea.  And I realize they never gained air superiority.  But even so, England was back on her heels.  And like Meade after Gettysburg or McClellan after Antietam, you pay a price for not destroying your enemy entirely. 

I wonder.  Could Hitler have lured France and Spain into assisting with the invasion of England (even if it was simply to pin down British troops throughout Africa) by promising both countries British territory abroad?  Promise Franco Gibraltar...promise Vichy British territory in Africa and the Caribbean?  I would think a couple million German soldiers, battle-hardened, well-equipped and highly skilled -- with the added cannon fodder of Italian, French and Spanish troops -- might have been enough to do the trick.  Hell, I wonder if Turkey could have been lured in as well?

Of course, Sea Lion never happened.  And had it taken place, it might have been a major disaster for Germany.  I would never bet against the British.  But it is fun to wonder how things might have played out differently.

[JSojourner]

Waiting too long to attack Russia. He could have succeeded, had not Barbarossa been delayed by Hitler's need to clean up Mussolini's Greek adventure.

I think the opposite.  Had he waited until he had jet aircraft and V2 rockets and maybe even nukes (probably not though) and invaded in say, 1943.  Things would have turned out differently.

Great arguments on both sides.  He waited too long and got caught in the mud, and later the snow.  But good grief -- mud or no -- the Wermacht kicked some serious ass in 1941.

Waiting until 1943 might have helped technologically.  But then, the USSR would have had two more years to replenish and revive its military.  Stalin's purges and the Russo-Finnish war took a toll.  Too, by 1943, Hitler would be fighing the US in North Africa or Italy.

Whatever mistakes he made, fighting on three fronts (I consider the Mediterranean a third front) was just plain un-doable.

[JSojourner]

Declaring war on the US. This guaranteed that we would in turn declare war on them, which otherwise may not have happened, at least for a few more years. Germany hadn't directly attacked us, and so our refusal to declare war on them before Pearl Harbor likely wouldn't have changed.

Best bet for Germany would've been to allow Japan to take on the US to distract us while they continue to usurp Europe.

Interesting story.  My Dad was a long time employee of the New York Central and Penn Central Railroads out of Cleveland.  A buddy of his had emigrated from Germany around 1933 or 34 and was looking for work at the railroad.  They got to talking about his family back home.  His friend, whose name now escapes me, would get letters from his relatives urging him to return to Germany.  The Fuhrer, they assured him, was the most brilliant man to ever walk the earth.  They didn't think Germany would ever fight America because, they claimed, there were so many Germans and people of German descent, it would not be logical.  Still, they told him America -- if there would be war -- would be quickly dispatched.  Americans were lazy cake and pie eaters, they said.  Undisciplined and incapable of sacrifice. And a cripple for a President, to boot!

He was tempted to buy into that line of thinking because, after all, what passed for poverty in depression-era Cleveland was nothing like what he knew of post-Great War Germany.  And still the Americans complained!  He thought perhaps his relations were right.  Germany could defeat America.

Until he applied for a job at a warehouse in Cleveland.  I don't remember the company, but he told my father the warehouse covered several soccer fields.  And it contained nothing but pallets, ten feet high, of Coca Cola.  From stem to stern.  At the height of the depression.

At first, he thought, "The family is right.  These people value this liquid candy so highly, they must be of little consequence."  But the more he mulled it over, he came to another conclusion.  He said to my Dad, "Mein Gott! What fools we were.  To ever think Germany could defeat America was the height of arrogance.  If America, in a time of economic depression, could produce that much Coca Cola in just one city -- imagine how many tanks and planes and rifles she could produce if she had to."

That story always stayed with me.  I don't know if we're still that same kind of country.  I hope so.  But one thing I am sure of...there was never any chance of any country defeating us in 1941. No matter how unprepared we were, initially, for war.

[JSojourner]

His biggest mistake was not focusing enough on the African front; instead considering it a side show which had been brought about by Mussolini's stupidity to the main showpiece in Russia. Had Hitler been more canny he would have realized that by defeating the British Army in Egypt he would create access for him to the middle east and the resources (and often sympathetic populations..) that that would imply.

Say if Rommell had won El-Alamein and had pushed the British back to Central Arabia it would significantly increased his opportunities without even needing to invade Russia; Turkey for example might have declared for the Axis if it thought Germany would have a significant chance of winning the region. Which would of course have opened a new invasion possibility in the Russian Front - via the Cacasuas (which is what Hitler wanted anyway..)

Couple questions...

1.  Do you think Hitler could have seriously weakened the British in North Africa (and elsewhere) by making fabulous promises and guarantees to the French (Vichy), Spanish and Turks?  Something like, "you attack the Brits on land and sea and you can have XXXX."  In the case of Vichy, let them have British colonies in West Africa and the Caribbean...in the case of Spain, Gibraltar and perhaps some Atlantic Islands like St. Helena...in the case of the Turks, British-controlled Iraq and Palestine.

2.   Even if Rommel had won at Alamein, the Brits would just fall back to Alexandria...and then Cairo.  Rommel's supply lines would be stretched even thinner.  Or do you think there would be a renewed effort to reduce Malta and gain total superiority over the air and sealanes?